By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
The RIT men’s hockey team is one of seven teams in the nation with a perfect penalty kill percentage this season. The Tigers faced one of the six units last weekend, when St. Lawrence visited the Blue Cross Arena. They’ll meet another this weekend, when they travel to South Bend, Ind. to play the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Thursday and Friday.
Though Notre Dame’s PK is not a promising matchup for the RIT man advantage, as the Tigers are also one of four teams without a power-play goal yet, the Tigers’ kill is one of the reasons Wayne Wilson’s team carries a three-game point streak. The Tigers garnered a vote in this week’s USCHO.com poll, one of 37 programs to appear on at least one ballot.
The Irish are 13th in the USCHO poll and 12th in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine ranking, off to a 3-0 start after positive COVID-19 results within the program forced them out of last season’s NCAA Tournament. ND’s eight NHL draft picks- Jack Adams, Jake Boltmann, Trevor Janicke, Nick Leivermann, Jake Pivonka, Ryder Rolston, Landon Slaggert and Spencer Stastney- have the blue and gold thinking about a third Frozen Four trip in six years.
Two games at the state-of-the-art Compton Family Ice Arena will serve as a litmus test for the Tigers, who defeated St. Lawrence 2-1 in last Saturday’s Brick City Weekend game. Only Mercyhurst collected more points over its first two Atlantic Hockey Association matchups than RIT, which earned a 4-3 win at West Point two weeks ago before a narrow shootout loss the next evening.
Janicke scored twice in the last Irish win over Northern Michigan, a 5-2 triumph that also included goals from Rolston, Slaggert and Max Ellis. Goaltender Matthew Galajda has saved 44 of the 48 shots he has faced, while Ryan Bischel has stopped 26 of 27.
The Tigers last played on the Notre Dame campus in the 2015 NCAA Tournament, upsetting No. 1 seed Minnesota State before being shut out by Omaha in the second round. The last time RIT played Notre Dame was in 1989, when the Irish played in the Joyce Center. The teams split their four-game series, played over two seasons.
Both puck drops are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and can be seen locally on SportsNet New York.
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